Farm Bureau Ag Innovation Challenge Contestants Vie for $100K
The American Farm Bureau Federation, in partnership with Farm Credit, is seeking entrepreneurs to apply online by June 15 for the 2025 Farm Bureau Ag Innovation Challenge. Now in its 11th year, this national business competition showcases U.S. startup companies developing innovative solutions to challenges faced by America’s farmers, ranchers and rural communities.
The overall winner of the competition will receive $100,000 in startup funds, the runner-up will be awarded $25,000 and two additional business owners who advance to the final four round will receive $10,000.
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Local Food Companies are Reaching New Heights With the Help of the LSU AgCenter’s Food Innovation Institute
LSU’s best kept secret might not be the underground tunnels, the abandoned Huey P. Long pool or the Dairy Store, but rather the AgCenter’s Food Innovation Institute.
This game-changing resource center, also known as FOODii, is where food businesses and entrepreneurs can learn the essential steps to start and grow a legitimate food business. The institute educates and supports business owners in areas like product development, food testing, labeling, marketing products, food safety, security and storage.
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Old Crop Cotton Supported As Price Creeps Lower
My best cotton friend in Lubbock says the market is going higher while my best buddy in Memphis says it’s going lower. Of course, I agree with my friends.
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Economist Michael Diliberto: A Trust Source For Louisiana Producers
Michael Deliberto hates public speaking.
The agricultural economist is most at home in his office at LSU in Baton Rouge surrounded by stacks of file folders and note pads, his base for writing newsletters and articles about the ways weather, global forces and policy decisions affect Louisiana agriculture.
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Rice Leadership Development Program Session One Goes To The Gulf Coast
My first session of the Rice Leadership Program started with the same recipe of every alumnus I spoke to: a little anxiousness and a lot of uncertainty on how I thought I could get away from my home duties for an entire week. The fear of disappointing those who supported me to be accepted into the program and the fear of the phone call of Dr. Linscombe’s wrath encouraged me to head to Crowley in the pouring rain to meet up with my Louisianan brethren, Kane Webb, Cole Reiners, and John McLain, for the drive to Texas to teach everyone something about rice measured in barrels.
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LDAF Enhances Protective Measures, Encourages Increased Biosecurity in the Wake of Emerging Cattle Disease
The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF) is encouraging dairy producers to increase biosecurity measures at their operations in response to several reports of an emerging cattle disease across the nation. Herds affected by the emerging cattle disease have had detections of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) virus. It is currently unknown if this is the only contributing cause of the cattle illness. To date, HPAI has been detected in dairy cattle in Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Michigan, Idaho, and Ohio. At this time, there have been no reported detections of HPAI in Louisiana dairy cattle or other livestock.
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Louisiana Lawmakers are Considering a Batch of Bills to Safeguard the State's Seafood Industry
Louisiana lawmakers are considering a batch of bills to safeguard the state's seafood industry from an influx of foreign shrimp and crawfish and to strengthen safety measures for imported products.
Some bills would increase fees and licensing requirements on dealers bringing in foreign seafood and expand safety testing. Others would require more accurate labeling about where any type of seafood originates and ban the use of foreign seafood in school lunch programs.
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Agile Cold Storage Chooses Louisiana for $45.9M Facility
With a bundle of state financial incentives, Georgia-based Agile Cold Storage is building a site next to a historic Louisiana brick-making facility with plans to ship 100 containers weekly of food products from its new Pearl River facility to the Port of New Orleans for overseas markets.
Agile Cold Storage, a diversified storage and logistics services company serving North American food manufacturers, processors and growers, announced it will invest $45.9 million to construct a 150,000-square-foot automated cold storage facility in St. Tammany Parish.
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British YouTubers Try Boiled Louisiana Crawfish For The First Time
Two British YouTubers, Josh and Ollie of the popular JOLLY channel, embarked on a quintessential Louisiana experience - indulging in a traditional crawfish boil. Their destination? Salvo’s Seafood, a local spot in Belle Chasse not far from New Orleans known for its authentic Cajun cuisine.
Upon arrival, the duo couldn't help but notice the abundance of pickup trucks, a stark contrast to the vehicle landscape back in the UK. "Seems like there are more trucks here than in the entire United Kingdom," Josh joked, setting the tone for the light-hearted culinary experience ahead.
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This New-to-Louisiana Bird Wails Like a Banshee but Eats Pesky Nuisance, Saving Crops
It's not a colorful or elegant bird, nor does it sing anything that could be described as pleasant. Its feathers are drab. Its beak droopy, and its long-legged gait is so gimpy that it was cursed with one of the most disparaging names in all of birddom: the limpkin.
And yet the limpkin’s first appearance in Louisiana a few years ago was cause for celebration. That’s because this gangly, shrieking bird from Florida is the mortal enemy of a foreign snail that’s been wreaking havoc in Louisiana’s farms and wetlands.
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Fighting Fire Ants
Fire ants are formidable pests in gardens and landscapes. They’re known for their painful bites and stings due to venom. When disturbed, fire ant mounds can unleash swarms of sterile female worker ants that sting and inject venom within seconds, potentially causing severe allergic reactions or dangerous medical issues in some individuals.
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Diaz Named Director Of Invasive Species Research Center
LSU AgCenter entomologist Rodrigo Diaz has been named director of the AgCenter’s Center for Research Excellence for the Study of Invasive Species. The center is working to advance the understanding of destructive nonnative insects, weeds, wildlife and disease-causing microorganisms.
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Congresswoman Letlow Makes Efforts to Expand Emergency Relief Benefits
Congresswoman Julia Letlow questioned the United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on the steps his department was making to provide assistance for Louisiana farmers during a hearing on March 22.
During the hearing with USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, Congresswoman Julia Letlow mentioned challenges that some Louisiana farmers are facing due to a drought in 2023. The USDA Secretary, Tom Vilsack agreed to partner with Congresswoman Letlow on steps moving forward to assist Louisiana farmers who have faced challenges from the drought of 2023.
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Novo Nordisk Invests $4.1 Million in Louisiana Small-Scale Agriculture Coalition’s Cutting-Edge Food System Program
Novo Nordisk has announced a 3-year, $4.1MM grant to support the production and sale of local food on small-scale farms throughout the state. This complex food systems program is the work of the Louisiana Small-Scale Agriculture Coalition (LSSAC), a coalition of seven food system organizations who work on a range of components of food system infrastructure across Louisiana. The statewide coalition consists of long-standing partner organizations the Acadiana Food Alliance, Big River Economic Agricultural Development Alliance, Louisiana Central, Market Umbrella, New Orleans Food Policy Action Council, Shreveport Green and SPROUT NOLA.
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Battling Weedy Rice With ACCase Cropping Systems
Herbicide-resistant weedy rice significantly impacts yield potential, and the pressure intensifies in problem fields placed in continuous rice rotations. With limited technology to combat weedy rice, many farmers turn to Acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase) chemistries, like the Max-Ace Cropping Solution or Provisia Rice System, as their only options.
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